Car-door-operating mechanism



Oct. 27, 1925- 1,559,026

H. T. ANDERSON CAR DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM Filed.May 20, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

47M W M' Oct. 27, 1925- H. T. ANDERSON cm noon OPERATING macrunusil- 3' Shani-Sheet 2 Fiied llay 20. 1924 mw R INVENTOR 67 Oct. 27, 1925. I 1,559,026

H, -r. ANDERSON CAR DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM Filed May 2 1924 s sheets-sheet 5 INVENTOR Patented Oct. 27, 1925.

UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFICE,

HARRY a. ANDERSON, or eewnanraaasywnnm, Assreaoa To seamless swam, CAR COMPANY, or err'rssaeen, rn iins nvenie, A. conroaa'rI-oa or PENNSYL- VANIA.

CAR-DOOR-OPERATIN;G MECHANISM Application filed y 2o, 1924. s mi No. 714,655.-

ToaZZ- whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, HARRY T. ANmnis-QN, a citizen of the -United States, and resident of Butler, in the county of Butler and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Gill-DOOIFOIJQlfitiHg Mechanism and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to car door operating mechanisms, and particularly to means for operating the drop doors of hopper bottom cars.

()ne object of my invention'is to provide an improved arrangement of operating shafts and transmission mechanism.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved form of mounting for the doors themselves whereby they are per mitted to swing downwardly and outwardly to increase the distance between them when open, while at the same time they are held against contact with the roadbed or track rails.

Still another object of my invention re.- sides in the provision of an improved form of centering device for doors of the type referred to.

r A further object of my invention is to 159 sin iplify and improve generally the structure and operation of drop door mechanisms. n

One form which my invention may take is shown in the ace'ompanying drawing wherein Fig. 1 is a transverse sectional view of a portion of a car to which my invention is applied; Fig. 2 is aview, partially in side elevation and partially in section, of the apparatus of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 a plan view of the apparatus of Figs. 1 and 2 Fig. l is an elevational View of a pair of operating gears and thecrank associated therewitli the parts being shownin the positions occupied thereby when the doors are raised and locked; Fig. 5 is a view of the same parts,

showing the position thereof at the beginnin'gl of the opening movement of the doors, andFi'g. 6 shows the positions .of such. parts at the .conipletionpf the opening movement;

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2,7 represents the sides :ofthe, car, 8 the draft sill, 9 the truck wheels, and 10 the drop doors. As shown more clearly in Figs. 2 and 3, I provide an operating shaft 11 provided with a ratchet 12 that is restrained against back- Pics. 2 andfi;

ward movementby a pawl 18' operated from either side of the car by handles 14k and shaft 1 5: through tripping mechanism which may be of any desired form.-

The shaft- 1 1- isprovided with squared.

ends that may be operatedhy wrench or bar in the usual; manner to, rotate the same. A bevelv gear 1 6 .is securedto the shaft 11 and meshes with a cooperating gear-116 that is mounted on a shaft 17 secured to the side of the car. t i i A pair of sprocket wheels 19 are secured to the shaft 17 mounted in bearings 18, and mesh with chains 20 that have driving. engagement with sprocket wheels 21 which are secured to shafts 22 mounted in hearings in the draft sill 8. It will be seen that as theshaft 11 is rotated the shafts 1 7 and 22 are also rotated, through the connections just described. 1 r V. o A gear wheel 23'is secured to each of the shafts 2 2 and these gears 23 mesh with gear wheels, 24 secured to shafts. 25 that are mounted upon hearings in the draft sill 8. V

A crank 26 is loosely mounted on each of the shafts 25 and rotates therewith. The crank 26 is provided with an opening 27 for the reception of a bolt 28 that serves to connect said crank with a pair of links 29. iv

The opposite ends of links-'29 are pro vided with a bolt 30 that serves as a conned tion betw'en said links 29' and a pair of slightly curved lifting links 31 Each of the lifting links 31. is pivotally connected at its lower end, through a hifur-: catedeye bolt 33, with one of the drop doors 10, there being a link-31 at each end of each drop door, as shown more: clearly in 'Fhe drop doors 10 are pivotally supported fr-omthe car body by means of swinging Links 34 (Fig. 1)' and by supplemental links 35. The supplemental links do not support any portion of the weight of the doors 10 when closed. f

The parts are so arranged that when the doors are ,in closed position as shown in 1, the cen g ty 9 h wei n th nk i o he r s i fihesl afi 2 7th constitnting an eve ;e; e'enter device wh in vhe'w igla 1 fan the a hold the shaft 2 from turning in count clockwise direction.

When the parts are in the position of is in engagement with a lug or stop 38 on the crank 26, the crank 26 being loosely mounted upon the shaft 22. So long as the gear wheel 24 is held against movement in a clockwise direction the doors cannot open. The gear wheel 24 is held againstturning, through the connections 23, 21, 20, 19, 16 and 16 by pawl 13. \Vhen the pawl 13 is released the shaft 11 may be rotated backwardly, driving the gear wheel 24 (Fig. 1) in a-counter-clockwise direction until the lug 37 reaches the position at the opposite side of the lug 88 indicated in Fig. 5. Further movement of the gear wheel 24: will move the pin 30 (Fig. 1), connecting the links 29 with the links 31, upwardly and to the left across the shaft 25, permitting the links 31 and the doors 10 to descend to the positions indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1. As the doors 10 drop, the links 35 assume a vertical position as indicated in dotted lines and the links 34 and doors 10 move backward under the action of gravity and the weight of the contents of the car being dumped, thus increasing the space between the inner edges of the doors 10, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 1. The links 35 besides assisting the doors to swing bodily outward from the center line of the car, hold the inner edges of the door against falling into contact withthe track rail of the road-bed, thus preventing them from becoming damaged should the car he moved while they are in open position and from being injured through suddenly falling against the track rails.

If, with the parts in the positions indi cated in dotted lines in Fig. 1, the shaft 1.1 be rotated in such manner as to move the gears 24 in a clockwise direction, the links 29 and 31 will be drawn upwardly to close the doors 10. During thisnpwa-rd movement the forward ends of the links 29 are carried across the shaft 25 and their intermediate portions fulcrum thereon so that their forward ends may be drawn down to the position shown in Fig. 1 and the doors 10 fully elevated. The lugs 37 and 38 on the gear wheel 24: and the crank 26, respectively, then occupy the positions indicated 1 in Fig. 6, and the gear wheel 24: may then be locked against reverse or backward movement by the pawl 13 and the ratchet wheel 12, as above explained.

In order to insure that the doors 10 will be properly positioned with respect to the longitudinal-center line ofthe car, when being raised to closed position, I provide a pair of guides 40 that have curved faces which cooperate with the links 31 so that both links will be moved inwardly the same distance while the doors are being raised.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided a structure wherein the lifting mechanism of the doors may be conveniently ope 'ated; wherein the doors may be opened to a relatively great distance with out danger of damage thereto; one wherein the doors are positively guided to properly closed position, and one wherein a maximum efficiency is obtained with a simplified form of operating mechanism.

It will be understood that various changes in detail and general arrangement may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.

hat I claim is:

1. Car door operating mechanism comprising an operating shaft, a counter shaft disposed at right angles to said operating shaft, cooperating gear wheels carried by said shafts, a sprocket carried by said counter shaft, door closing mechanism, a sprocket for actuating said mechanism, and a drive chain connecting the said sprockets.

2. Car door operating mechanism comprising an operating shaft disposed transversely of the car, a counter shaft disposed longitudinally of the car, door closing and locking means, and a driving connection be tween said counter shaft and said means.

3. The combination with a railway car, of a drop door, a hinge member for supporting one. edge of the door from the car body, a link connected at one end to the opposite edge of said door and at its other end to a point on the car body remote from the edges of the door, and means providing for movement of the first-named edge of the door in a substantially horizontal direction when the second-named edge thereof is being lowered.

4? The combination with a railway car, of drop doors pivotally supported at their outer edges, vertically movable hanger members for supporting the inner edges of the doors and guide members for centering said doors when the said inner hanger members are raised.

5. The combination with a railway car, of drop doors supported at their outer edges for movement transversely of the car, ver tically movable hanger members for raising and lowering the inner edges of said. doors, and guide means for said hanger members, whereby each door is moved toward the center line of the car a predetermined dis tance when said hanger members are raised.

In testimony whereof I, the said Hana; T. ANDERSON, have hereunto set my hand.

HARRY :r. ANDERSON. 

